Maersk Drilling awarded world record breaking contract by Total

Maersk Drilling has received a conditional letter of award by Total for a three-well exploration drilling project utilising 2015-built drillship Maersk Voyager.

The drillship will be employed offshore Angola and Namibia for a campaign, which includes the deepest water depth ever drilled offshore. The project includes two wells offshore Angola and one well offshore Namibia.

The campaign is scheduled to commence in January 2020, and has an estimated duration of 240 days. The total value is around $46.3m, including a mobilisation fee, and two additional one-well options are available.

One of the wells in Angola, at Block 48, will be drilled at a new world record water depth of 3,628m.

“We are thrilled to once again push beyond existing boundaries in collaboration with Total, drawing upon our mutual experience from the exciting deepwater exploration projects we have collaborated on over the years. In addition, it’s great to be heading back to Angola where we performed a series of successful operations from 2012 to 2016, and to do so in a multi-country campaign which will showcase our ability to quickly and smoothly move operations from one jurisdiction to another,” said Morten Kelstrup, COO of Maersk Drilling.

Grant spent nine years at Informa Group based in London, Sydney, Hong Kong and Singapore. He gained strong management experience in publishing, conferences and awards schemes in the shipping and legal areas, working on a number of titles including Lloyd's List. In 2009 Grant joined Seatrade responsible for the commercial development of Seatrade’s Asia products. In 2012, with Sam Chambers, he co-founded Asia Shipping Media.